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Computational models

Riccardo Manenti, Mário Motta

Published Aug 25, 2023• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract In this chapter, we introduce the definitions of automata Turing machines. We present different flavors of Turing machines including deterministic, probabilistic, and multi-tape machines. We present several complexity classes, i.e. collections of problems that can be solved by a machine with similar resources, including the P and NP classes. We present the Church-Turing thesis, which states that if a problem can be solved by a physical machine, then it can also be solved by any deterministic Turing machine. In the last part of the chapter, we introduce quantum Turing machines and the quantum circuit model. We study the complexity class BQP. This is the class of problems that can be solved by a quantum computer with polynomial resources and a small error probability. Finally, we introduce QMA, the quantum version of the complexity class NP. We present the k-LOCAL problem, and we show that this problem is in QMA

DOI
10.1093/oso/9780198787488.003.0002

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Abstract In this chapter, we introduce the definitions of automata Turing machines. We present different flavors of Turing machines including deterministic, probabilistic, and multi-tape machines. We present several complexity classes, i.e. collections of problems that can be solved by a machine with similar resources, including the P and NP classes. We present the Church-Turing thesis, which states that if a problem can be solved by a physical machine, then it can also be solved by any deterministic Turing machine. In the last part of the chapter, we introduce quantum Turing machines and the quantum circuit model. We study the complexity class BQP. This is the class of problems that can be solved by a quantum computer with polynomial resources and a small error probability. Finally, we introduce QMA, the quantum version of the complexity class NP. We present the k-LOCAL problem, and we show that this problem is in QMA
Quantum computing is a prolific research area, halfway between physics and computer science [27, 29, 52]. Most likely, its origins may be dated back to 70's, when some works on quantum information began to appear (see, e.g., [34, 37]). In early 80's, R.P. Feynman suggested that the computational power of quantum mechanical processes might be beyond that of traditional computation models [25]. Almost at the same time, P. Benioff already proved that such processes are at least as powerful as Turing machines [9]. In 1985, D. Deutsch [22] proposed the notion of a quantum Turing machine as a physically realizable model for a quantum computer. From the point of view of structural complexity, E. Bernstein and U. Vazirani introduced in [20] the class BQP of problems solvable in polynomial time on quantum Turing machines, focusing attention on relations with the corresponding deterministic and probabilistic classes P and BPP, respectively. Several works in the literature explored classical issues in complexity theory from the quantum paradigm perspective (see, e.g., [7, 60, 61]).
We present results on quantum Turing machines and on prover-verifier interactions. \n \n \nIn our work on quantum Turing machines, we continue the line of research opened by Yao (1993), who proved that quantum Turing machines and quantum circuits are polynomially equivalent computational models: t ≥ n steps of a quantum Turing machine running on an input of length n can be simulated by a uniformly generated family of quantum circuits with size quadratic in t, and a polynomial-time uniformly generated family of quantum circuits can be simulated by a quantum Turing machine running in polynomial time. We then first revisit the simulation of quantum Turing machines with uniformly generated quantum circuits, and present a variation on the simulation method employed by Yao together with an analysis of it. This analysis reveals that the simulation of quantum Turing machines can be performed by quantum circuits having depth linear in t, rather than quadratic depth, and can be extended easily to many variants of quantum Turing machines, such as ones having multi-dimensional tapes. Our analysis is based on an extension of a method of Arrighi, Nesme, and Werner (2011) that allows for the localization of causal unitary evolutions, involving abstract lemmas that might be of independent interest. \n \n \nWe also consider the more complex extension of our variant to the circuit simulation of multi-tape quantum Turing machines, where our variant provides a circuit with O(t^k) size and O(t^{k-1}) depth for the simulation of t steps of a machine with k tapes. This can be contrasted with the O(t^{k}) depth corresponding to the generalization of Yao's simulation by Nishimura and Ozawa (2002). Our usage of abstract techniques regarding the localization of causal unitary evolutions allows again for a simplification of the algebraic manipulation aspects of the construction. We also discuss the further extension to the case of oracle quantum Turing machines. \n \n \nIn our work on prover-verifier interactions, we first consider a protocol under the name of perfect/conclusive quantum state exclusion. This means to be able to discard with certainty at least one out of n possible quantum state preparations by performing a measurement of the resulting state. When all the preparations correspond to pure states and there are no more of them than their common dimension, it is an open problem whether POVMs give any additional power for this task with respect to projective measurements. This is the case even for the simple case of three states in three dimensions, which is discussed by Caves, Fuchs and Schack (2002) as unsuccessfully tackled. In our work, we give an analytical proof that in this case POVMs do indeed not give any additional power with respect to projective measurements. We also discuss possible generalizations of our work, including an application of Quadratically Constrained Quadratic Programming that might be of special interest. \n \n \nWe additionally consider the problem of quantum hedging, a particular kind of quantum correlation that arises between parallel instances of prover-verifier interactions. M. and Watrous (2012) studied a protocol that exhibited a perfect form of quantum hedging, where the risk for the prover of losing a first game can completely offset the corresponding risk for a second game. We take a step towards a better understanding of this hedging phenomenon by giving a characterization of the prover's optimal behavior for a natural generalization of this protocol. Furthermore, we discuss how the usage of the logarithmic utility principle to analyze prover-verifier interactions could justify further study of quantum hedging.
The work includes the analyses of the theoretical capabilities of quantum-mechanical versus classical computer models in terms of their universality, their application domain, their efficacy in solving the problems and their technological feasibility. The concepts of deterministic Turing machine, probabilistic Turing machine and quantum-mechanical Turing machine are exposed. The concept of basic information unit of quantum-mechanical computer modelqubit is introduced and the qubit is represented through the use of Bloch sphere. The use of Dirac's bra-ket notation in description of quantum-mechanical state is explained, and the notation is used to form state equation of a quantummechanical Turing machine cell. Especially, consequences of quantum parallelism, quantum interference and wave function collapse are studied in respect to capabilities of quantum-mechanical computer models. The interrelationship between classes of problems that can be efficiently solved by quantum mechanical and/or classical computer models is displayed.
A practical viewpoint links reality, representation, and language to calculation by the concept of Turing (1936) machine being the mathematical model of our computers. After the Gödel incompleteness theorems (1931) or the insolvability of the so-called halting problem (Turing 1936; Church 1936) as to a classical machine of Turing, one of the simplest hypotheses is completeness to be suggested for two ones. That is consistent with the provability of completeness by means of two independent Peano arithmetics discussed in Section I.Many modifications of Turing machines cum quantum ones are researched in Section II for the Halting problem and completeness, and the model of two independent Turing machines seems to generalize them.Then, that pair can be postulated as the formal definition of reality therefore being complete unlike any of them standalone, remaining incomplete without its complementary counterpart. Representation is formal defined as a one-to-one mapping between the two Turing machines, and the set of all those mappings can be considered as “language” therefore including metaphors as mappings different than representation. Section III investigates that formal relation of “reality”, “representation”, and “language” modeled by (at least two) Turing machines.The independence of (two) Turing machines is interpreted by means of game theory and especially of the Nash equilibrium in Section IV.Choice and information as the quantity of choices are involved. That approach seems to be equivalent to that based on set theory and the concept of actual infinity in mathematics and allowing of practical implementations.
Contrary to the classical case, the relation between quantum programming languages and quantum Turing Machines (QTM) has not been fully investigated. In particular, there are features of QTMs that have not been exploited, a notable example being the intrinsic infinite nature of any quantum computation. In this paper, we propose a definition of QTM, which extends and unifies the notions of Deutsch and Bernstein & Vazirani. In particular, we allow both arbitrary quantum input, and meaningful superpositions of computations, where some of them are “terminated” with an “output”, while others are not. For some infinite computations an “output” is obtained as a limit of finite portions of the computation. We propose a natural and robust observation protocol for our QTMs, which does not modify the probability of the possible outcomes of the machines. Finally, we use QTMs to define a class of quantum computable functions—any such function is a mapping from a general quantum state to a probability distribution of natural numbers. We expect that our class of functions, when restricted to classical input-output, will not be different from the set of the recursive functions.